3 Ways to Use Software Consultants to Attract Full-Time Coders

3 Ways to Use Software Consultants to Attract Full-Time Coders

In the Boston startup scene, finding a CTO or technical cofounder can be difficult and time consuming. The coders that are willing to take the risk and join a new venture often hear more pitches than they know what to do with, and ideas that are unproven or difficult to demonstrate without a prototype can be harder to sell. If you’re running into the Catch-22 of needing to have a technical team member in order to build a business to attract a technical team member, consulting groups can help you fill in the talent gap. Here are some ways to use a consulting group to help attract full-time talent.

1. Build a Minimum Viable Product, or MVP

There are many fledgling start-ups that know they want a full-time team member to build a robust, ready-to-sell version of their product but can’t find one right away. If you want to keep things moving in the meantime and show coders a product with momentum, one option is to build an MVP. This is the most basic, easy-to-design version of your product. Building an MVP won’t break the bank in the same way building a full product will, and being able to demonstrate something visual will help you pick up not only coders but perhaps some early adopters as well.

2. Prepare for Investor Presentations

Employees usually prefer to receive some sort of monetary compensation for their work. Offering sweat equity to a software engineer who would need to give up a healthy salary is a very different conversation than, say, getting funded and being able to offer a competitive compensation package. However, in order to get funding you’ll need to convince at least one investor that your project will be profitable. If you don’t have anything to demonstrate or have a basic prototype that needs polishing before the big meeting, you can use a software consulting firm to bridge that talent gap.

3. Prove Your Idea Works

Some of the best ideas on a business level simply sound exhausting on a software level. If you’re getting feedback that your idea sounds too difficult or too time consuming to be worthwhile for a coder, finding the right consulting firm can help you get that proof of concept. Many consulting firms specialize in one particular language or technology that would be necessary for an off-beat project and can see solutions that generalists can’t. Not sure what you need or what sounds so daunting on the back end of your business software? Try bouncing the idea off of a few different software consulting firms to identify where that sticking point is and find the right firm to prove it can be done.